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Information Problem (information + problem)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting33%

Selected Abstracts

Information problems in molecular biology and bioinformatics

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2005
W. John MacMullen
In this article we provide an overview of opportunities for research and practice in the domain of molecular biology by information and library scientists. We introduce the changing role of data and information in molecular biology, and how molecular biology is evolving from a technique- and technology-driven science to an information-driven science. We then describe the high-level objectives of molecular biology and some broad classes of problems from an information perspective. We illustrate the high-level objectives with examples of specific tasks performed by biologists. Finally, we provide some programmatic direction for information and library science research streams and insertion points. [source]

Cell phone roulette and "consumer interactive" quality

JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2005
Peter Navarro
Under current policies, cell phone consumers face a lower probability of finding the best carrier for their usage patterns than winning at roulette. Corroborating survey data consistently show significant dissatisfaction among cell phone users, network performance is a major issue, and customer "churn" is high. This problem may be traced to a new form of "consumer interactive" quality characteristic of emergent high technology products such as cell phone and broadband services. This problem is unlikely to be resolved by effective search and sampling, efficient secondary markets, or voluntary carrier disclosure. Traditional one-dimensional disclosure responses to this new variation on an old asymmetric information problem should give way to a more multi-faceted and fine-grained policy approach. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management [source]

Strategic help in user interfaces for information retrieval

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2002
Giorgio Brajnik
Although no unified definition of the concept of search strategy in Information Retrieval (IR) exists so far, its importance is manifest: nonexpert users, directly interacting with an IR system, apply a limited portfolio of simple actions; they do not know how to react in critical situations; and they often do not even realize that their difficulties are due to strategic problems. A user interface to an IR system should therefore provide some strategic help, focusing user's attention on strategic issues and providing tools to generate better strategies. Because neither the user nor the system can autonomously solve the information problem, but they complement each other, we propose a collaborative coaching approach, in which the two partners cooperate: the user retains the control of the session and the system provides suggestions. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated by a conceptual analysis, a prototype knowledge-based system named FIRE, and its evaluation through informal laboratory experiments. [source]

RANDOM PENALTIES AND RENEWABLE RESOURCES: A MECHANISM TO REACH OPTIMAL LANDINGS IN FISHERIES

NATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 3 2009
FRANK JENSEN
Abstract Recent literature considers illegal landings a moral hazard problem that arises because individual landings are unobservable. The literature proposes incentive schemes to solve the information problem. However, most of the proposed schemes raise huge information requirements and social budget balance is not secured. In this paper, we suggest a random penalty mechanism that reduces the information requirements and secures budget balance in the case of a given number of licensed vessels. In the random penalty mechanism, aggregate landings are measured through stock sizes and the natural growth function. If aggregate landings are below optimal landings, each fisherman receives a subsidy. If aggregate catches are above optimal landings, the mechanism works such that either the fisherman is randomly selected and pays a fine or the fisherman is not selected and receives a subsidy. The fine and subsidy can be designed such that budget balance is secured. Provided risk aversion is sufficiently large and the fine is high enough, the random penalty mechanism will generate optimal individual landings. The budget balance combined with risk aversion drives the result for this advanced tax/subsidy system that does not exhaust the resource rents. The budget balance creates interdependence between fishermen that secure optimality. [source]

Market Uncertainty and Socially Embedded Reputation

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009
Harris H. Kim
Both economists and sociologists generally recognize the importance of reputation in coordinating economic transactions. In a perfectly competitive and anonymous market characterized by faceless buyers and sellers, the issue of reputation would be irrelevant and unnecessary. In reality, however, markets are often filled with varying degrees of information asymmetry, which can threaten the very existence of the market system itself. In critical reaction to the standard neoclassical model, some economists, on the one hand, argue that when there is an information problem, reputation serves as a valuable source of market signal of quality. Sociologists of economic life similarly contend that reputation, along with trust, is critical in lowering transaction costs and thereby facilitating various economic activities among individual actors. The purpose of this article is to apply this broad theoretical observation to a specific empirical phenomenon. It does so by highlighting the role of social networks that connect actors on both demand and supply sides of the market. Specifically, this study examines how interpersonal networks in the market for legal services affect the duration of ties between buyers and sellers. Quantitative analysis based on a random sample of Chicago lawyers, a project funded by the American Bar Foundation, reveals that ceteris paribus the lawyer-client relations are significantly driven by social network factors. [source]

Some conditions which make the constantly scaled H, control synthesis problems convex

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBUST AND NONLINEAR CONTROL, Issue 1 2002
Toru Asai
Abstract In this paper, we present some computationally tractable conditions which make the constantly scaled H, control synthesis problem convex. If one of the conditions proposed in this paper holds, the constantly scaled H, control synthesis problem can be solved efficiently as an LMI problem. The results presented here include the existing results such as the state feedback and the full information problems as special cases. In addition, the results are generalized to the case that some of state variables are exactly available. Owing to this generalization, a larger class of problems can be reduced to convex problems, while reduced order controllers can be obtained. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Information-seeking and mediated searching.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 9 2002
Part 1.
Our project has investigated the processes of mediated information retrieval (IR) searching during human information-seeking processes to characterize aspects of this process, including information seekers' changing situational contexts; information problems; uncertainty reduction; successive searching, cognitive styles; and cognitive and affective states. The research has involved observational, longitudinal data collection in the United States and United Kingdom. Three questionnaires were used for pre- and postsearch interviews: reference interview, information seeker postsearch, and search intermediary postsearch questionnaires. In addition, the Sheffield team employed a fourth set of instruments in a follow-up interview some 2 months after the search. A total of 198 information seekers participated in a mediated on-line search with a professional intermediary using the Dialog Information Service. Each mediated search process was audio taped and search transaction log recorded. The findings are presented in four parts. Part I presents the background, theoretical framework, models, and research design used during the research. Part II is devoted to exploring changes in information seekers' uncertainty during the mediated process. Part III provides results related to successive searching. Part IV reports findings related to cognitive styles, individual differences, age and gender. Additional articles that discuss further findings from this complex research project, including: (1) an integrated model of information seeking and searching, (2) assessment of mediated searching, and (3) intermediary-information seeker communication, are in preparation and will be published separately. [source]

Financial factors and company investment decisions in transitional China

MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009
Jia Liu
We investigate the propensity of Chinese publicly listed firms to invest in response to financial factors, according to the a priori degree of a firm's information problems: industry sector, ownership structure and firm size. The firms in primary and tertiary industries are found to be liquidity-constrained in their investment decisions. The investment-cash flow sensitivity of the firms in secondary industry indicates that they lost privileged access to credit in the course of China's market transition. However, we find no evidence that financial liberalization resulted in an easing of financing constraints for small- and medium-sized firms. Our result indicates that agency problems, stemming from a state-controlling pyramidal ownership structure, are responsible for the misallocation of internal funds. The importance of bankruptcy and agency costs in relation to debt finance for certain types of borrowers reflects the transitional nature of the financial environment facing Chinese firms. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Can Market Power Influence Employment, Wage Inequality and Growth?

METROECONOMICA, Issue 2-3 2003
Alberto Bucci
We introduce an efficiency wage mechanism into an innovation-driven growth model. Due to asymmetric information problems the labour market is segmented and homogeneous workers may be employed either in the non-competitive intermediate sector or in the competitive research sector. We analyse the impact that the monopoly position enjoyed by intermediate firms in the product market may have on employment, wage inequality and growth, and the sectoral distribution of workers. We find that the lower the product market competition in the capital goods sector, the higher the research employment, the lower the intermediate sector employment and the higher the growth rate. The relationships between growth and inequality, on the one hand, and between growth and employment, on the other, are both negative. [source]